This Hollywood film starring Ryan Williams featured one of the greatest plays in Alabama football history and the story is just beginning

 

Time will tell if Ryan Williams will be one of the enduring icons of college football who, once he gets a football in his hands, evokes the same feelings of artistry and grandeur as Tiger Woods with a 7-iron, Hank Aaron with a bat, Michael Jordan with a basketball, the Wallendas with a high wire, daVinci with a paint brush, Gabriel with a horn or Denzel Washington with bad guys all around him.

But if Williams never catches another football, his 75-yard touchdown reception to beat Georgia Saturday night will always be remembered as one of the greatest plays in Alabama football history — magnificent stuff from the youngest player in major college football who was playing in only his fourth game.

Accordingly, the 41-34 victory moved the Crimson Tide to No. 1 in the AP poll Sunday for the first time in two years, past Texas and Ohio State, in a pileup reminiscent of Williams’ touchdown that made it all possible.

The play earned its place in Alabama lore not only because of its degree of difficulty but because it occurred in a moment in which mountains were crumbling and the Titanic had risen from the depths to capsize the Tide’s canoe. It also stamped the moment the first time millions of fans nationwide stopped and took notice of the freshman nicknamed “Hollywood.”

As the Bulldogs recovered from a 30-7 halftime deficit to take a 34-33 lead late in what would have been the biggest comeback ever in a game between top-five teams, Williams had been held mainly to a series of short completions. But, as always, one had the sense he was about to demonstrate his flair for the dramatic and it didn’t matter if it was against Georgia or Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa. There are Hollywood movies and there are Hollywood game films. Give me the game films.

It happened in front of 100,000 witnesses at Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, including Saban himself and former President Donald Trump, who both saw that Williams could help Make Alabama Great Again after four years without a national championship.

Thirteen seconds after the Bulldogs had taken the lead, quarterback Jalen Milroe, whose own brilliant play had swamped Georgia in the first half, dropped back and saw Williams on the wide side of the field with one-on-one coverage from cornerback Julian Humphrey. Milroe — who said after Williams’ college debut that he probably could never overthrow Hollywood — underthrew him on a go route.

Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart, who is now 1-6 against the Tide, had sensible reasons to favor Humphrey in man coverage against Williams. For one, Humphrey’s Instagram nickname is “The Blanket.” For another, Georgia needed an extra defender to keep Milroe from scrambling.

“They got a guy back there at quarterback that could be the best running back in the country and he throws the ball,” Smart said. “You can’t put two people on Ryan Williams. You can’t do it. You’ve got to make (Milroe) make throws.”

A Bulldogs lineman nearly shoved an Alabama blocker into Milroe’s lap, causing a slightly impeded delivery. When the imperfect throw left Milroe’s hand, it all seemed to be working for Smart, except for Milroe’s trust in Williams to change a flat tire while speeding down the highway.

What happened next might become a painting but when you consider what else Williams will do, the university might need to add a wing to the Paul W. Bryant Museum to house a gallery of masterpieces.

Williams adjusted to the underthrown ball and turned back to catch it inches from the boundary as The Blanket suddenly started flapping in the breeze and blew past. Defensive back K.J. Bolden caught up to the play from behind but Williams suddenly planted his left foot in the ground, a tap of the brakes that caused Humphrey and Bolden to run into each other and Georgia’s woofing fans to fall off their couches and gag on their celebratory chips and dip.

Humphrey’s and Bolden’s momentum spun them forward, ahead of Williams and in position to cut him off. But, drawing from his deep and instinctive well, Williams pirouetted 360 degrees and raced past them like they were planted scarecrows. Reaching full speed, and with so much air flowing over his face, Williams even had time to pull out his mouthpiece before scoring.

“You gotta tackle him,” Smart lamented, “make them snap it again and if we had momentum, make them drive it through. We didn’t get him on the ground and that’s the biggest fatal flaw of that play.”

Getting Williams on the ground — ever try to tackle a cobra? — would have still resulted in a 30-yard gain and, with three timeouts, given Milroe plenty of time to get into field goal range.

Instead, Williams raced another 45 yards after most receivers would have been stopped, proving again his unfailingly accurate football calculation that 4+2=6, as Williams said after catching two scoring passes from Milroe in his college debut a few weeks ago.

“Seventy-five yards with a 17-year-old!” ESPN’s Chris Fowler shrieked on the broadcast.

I get somewhat amused now that Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and the ESPN boys are discovering Williams and talking more about him. He is most often referred to as “that 17-year-old,” followed by a list of adjectives that are already getting worn out and fail to capture the genius of the man from Saraland.

That’s right, the genius and the man. Sometimes, someone so young is called a prodigy who doesn’t know what pressure is or realize what he’s gotten himself into. Williams knows pressure, all right, but it just bounces off him. He knows what he’s gotten himself into, although the rest of college football may not. That was evidenced Saturday night, when he wrote “Kill everybody” on his eye black.

Before you start criticizing Williams for that, you must understand he was speaking to his will to win, which is as overpowering as his footspeed and his moves that make defenders resemble staked tomatoes. What you saw Saturday night was a warrior who was not going to lose and who was not going to let his team lose and he did it with a smile.

God touches certain people with greatness and He has touched Williams. He also favors those who work for what they get. It makes you wonder what else Williams has to give or if any opponent can do anything about it, given the fact the Bulldogs might have the best defense the Tide will face this season.

Adversity will come, of course. Alabama must still play at Tennessee and LSU. The Tide might have to play Georgia again in the SEC Championship Game or the new College Football Playoff. Texas will surely be waiting in the postseason.

But conditions won’t get much more adverse than what was met and conquered Saturday night by a team and a player who live to win.

Immediately after his Alabama debut in the easy season opener against Western Kentucky, Tide coach Kalen DeBoer spoke of something he but few others had seen until his program was pressed to the wall on Saturday night.

“These guys have a relentlessness about them,” DeBoer said. “They want to be great.”